"Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

Photographer: Steve Cullen 

Summary Author: Steve Cullen 

Between the passing thunderstorm and the person in the campground loudly playing the chant from the scene in the desert of the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", Devils Tower, Wyoming certainly delivered on the experience. This view of the tower is not what was generally shown in the movie; rather it was mostly portrayed from the front- side. Technically, this is the side that they called the far side of the Moon and where the mothership landed.

In reality, the tower is a laccolithic butte; the leftover igneous rock core of a long since eroded away volcano. This rock is more durable than the surrounding terrain, and thus over the eons has been able to withstand freeze-thaw cycles and the effects of the Belle Fourche River. 

Photo August 25, 2017.

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